Conservatives prepare to fight nomination of Hagel as defense secretary

By Matea Gold — Tribune Washington Bureau

(MCT) — WASHINGTON — With former Sen. Chuck Hagel’s nomination as defense secretary imminent, conservatives denounced his views on Israel and Iran as out of step with mainstream foreign policy.

An administration official said Sunday that Hagel — a decorated Vietnam veteran, a Republican and a former two-term senator from Nebraska — would be nominated Monday to succeed Leon E. Panetta. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal White House planning.

The nomination is likely to set up a bruising confirmation fight. Critics on all sides already have been complaining about Hagel, with Republicans leading the charge.

Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union” earlier Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., predicted that Hagel would be “the most antagonistic secretary of defense toward the state of Israel in our nation’s history,” and called it an “in-your-face nomination.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., while promising Hagel would get a “fair hearing,” said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he would get “tough questions” in a confirmation hearing.

Hagel is viewed with suspicion by many in his party for calling on Israel to negotiate with Palestinians and for his opposition to some sanctions against Iran. Since his possible nomination was floated late last year, he has come under fierce attack by conservatives.

He also has been criticized on the left for a remark he made in 1998 that a Clinton administration ambassadorial nominee was “openly, aggressively gay.” Hagel recently apologized for that comment and pledged support for lesbian and gay military families.

Hagel, an Army veteran with two Purple Hearts, said in a recent interview with the history magazine Vietnam: “I’m not a pacifist. I believe in using force, but only after a very careful decision-making process. ... I will do everything I can to avoid needless, senseless war.”

In the Senate, Hagel voted to give the George W. Bush administration authority to go to war in Afghanistan and Iraq, but later he harshly criticized the conduct of both wars, irritating fellow Republicans and making him popular with Democrats critical of those wars.

Critics have focused on his calls for direct negotiations with Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that the U.S. and Israel refuse to deal with directly, and his votes against some Iran sanctions.

And Hagel rankled many with comments he made in a 2006 interview with author and former State Department Mideast peace negotiator Aaron David Miller. “The Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here,” Hagel said, but “I’m a United States senator. I’m not an Israeli senator.”

Graham said: “Quite frankly, Chuck Hagel is out of the mainstream of thinking, I believe, on most issues regarding foreign policy. … This an in-your-face nomination by the president to all of us who are supportive of Israel.”

Miller, who had interviewed Hagel for a book he was writing on the Mideast peace negotiations, wrote recently that attempts to use his comment about the “Jewish lobby” to paint Hagel as anti-Semitic were “shameful and scurrilous.” He noted that in the same interview, Hagel emphasized “shared values and the importance of Israeli security.”

Backers say Hagel showed his support for Israel by voting repeatedly to provide it with military aid and by calling for a comprehensive peace deal with the Palestinians that should not include any compromise regarding Israel’s Jewish identity and that would leave Israel “free to live in peace and security.”

They note that he also supported three major Iran sanctions bills: the Iran Missile Proliferation Sanctions Act of 1998, the Iran Nonproliferation Act of 2000 and the Iran Freedom Support Act of 2006.